


.-- . .-.. -.-. --- -- .

by Good_Morning_Desert_Bluffs



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cecil and Kevin are brothers, Diego and Carlos are cousins, Diego is Desert Bluffs Carlos, Hurt/Comfort, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Kevin Ships It, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-07 09:03:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10356909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Good_Morning_Desert_Bluffs/pseuds/Good_Morning_Desert_Bluffs
Summary: Carlos is in a new town and a new school. He has a good feeling about this place, and it isn't just the friends he makes or the really cute guy that seems to like him back, but





	1. New

Carlos sighed nervously as he looked at the building in front of him. It was his first day at a new school and as interesting as this experience was bound to be, he was terrified. He was the outcast at his last school, the guy who was too much of a nerd for even the other nerds. Not that he minded too much. His books were much better company, as were the creatures that he would study. Granted that made him a target for bullying which was why his parents up and moved them, well that and after his last experiment they needed to find a new home anyway. He didn’t mean for the chemicals to react the way they did. At least no one was home. His parents had taken the opportunity that their house became a toxic waste site to move the whole family to a small desert town. Of course Carlos’ siblings weren’t thrilled, but they understood.

“You the new kid?” Carlos startled as someone spoke to him, breaking him from his train of thought.

“Y-yeah.” The girl smiled brightly, dark eyes lighting up as she nudged him.

“Come on newbie, I’ll show you to the office. I'm Dana by the way.”

“My name’s Carlos.” Dana smiled at him before looking forward again.

“So you know, you’ll probably get a lot of attention. We don’t get many new students here in Night Vale.” Carlos nodded. He had happened to notice that as he was stared at almost as soon as his sister had dropped him off at the front.

“-need any help.” Carlos flinched as he realized he missed what Dana was saying.

“Sorry?”

“If you need help, just stop by the radio class. I’m usually there with Cecil and his brother.” Before Carlos could ask who either boy was, or where the class was for that matter, the bell rang. Dana waved before hurrying off towards her own class. Swallowing nervously Carlos knocked on the office door. Instead of it opening a letter was slipped out from underneath the door. Confused Carlos picked up the small red envelope addressed to him. Inside was his class schedule as well as a hall pass. If that wasn’t a clue as to what he should expect from living in this town, he had no idea what was.


	2. Chapter 2

Carlos made his way nervously to his first class. He entered quietly where the teacher looked at him along with the rest of the class.

“Ah, you must be Carlos.”

“Yessir.” Carlos mumbles shyly. Nodding the man pointed to a blonde in the back.

“There is an open seat beside Kevin.” Carlos noticed as he went to take his seat that there were several seats open besides the young man. The one in front the one to the side and the one at the corner, leaving Kevin in the corner with a wall behind him and the window to his side. Kevin excitedly patted the seat beside him,

“Sit here.” Carlos sat down a little stiffly, noticing the looks the others in class were giving them. A feeling of dread filled him. Was there something wrong with Kevin? Mentally shaking his head Carlos decided to get to know Kevin before making any assumptions.

“My name is Kevin Palmer.” Kevin announced with a happy smile, “It’s really swell to be meeting you!”

“It’s… uh… It’s nice to meet you too.”

“Kevin! Stop talking so we can start class.” Snapped the teacher. Instead of looking scolded Kevin just laughed as he nodded.

“Sure thing!” Before he actually stopped he turned to Carlos again, “If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask, ‘kay?” Carlos nodded once more. Kevin seemed nice, a little unnerving, but nice. The rest of English passed by easily enough. When Carlos was packing up Kevin waited for him.

“What class do you have next?” Kevin asked, his smile not wavering.

“Uh… Math.” Carlos starred as Kevin stole his schedule.

“Hmm, Oh! Oh! You have math with my brother! That’s great! He’ll like you. And… two science classes and an art class?” Kevin glanced at Carlos before chuckling,

“What?”

“You don’t seem like the kind of person to go into art.” Carlos shrugged in embarrassment.

“If I’m going to be a scientist then I should make sure people can understand my drawings if I need to make them.” Kevin laughed again.

“Carlos the scientist! That’s cute. Well now, the Math hallway is down that way and up the first flight of stairs. You’ll know the right room when you see someone that looks almost identical to me. I’ll see you in gym.” Kevin gave Carlos a quick hug before running down the opposite way. Slowly Carlos turned and headed in the direction that the eccentric blonde had pointed him. He couldn’t help but wonder what Kevin’s brother was like. Would he be as friendly as the other? Would he be as accepting of the new kid? Kevin seemed to think that his brother would be. Shyly peeking into the room that had the matching number to Carlos’ paper he scanned the room. Sitting by a window was a boy that looked almost identical to Kevin. His glasses were slipping off his nose as he concentrated on something he was doodling. While Kevin had worn a bright yellow dress shirt with an orange sweater vest, Cecil wore a much more… interesting outfit. The dress shirt was a light purple with darker purple eyes decorating it. The sweater vest over it that was rainbow in color. Slowly Carlos made his way inside and to the teacher’s desk. She looked up at him then smiled.

“Just one moment, alright dear?” Nodding Carlos stood off to the side, eyes on his shoes as he felt his classmates staring at him. Whispers broke out among them, making him fidget nervously. When the bell rang the teacher stood up. Placing a hand on his shoulder the teacher spoke,

“Class this is our new student Carlos. I expect all of you to be nice and helpful, because moving to a new place can be scary, especially when you have to start a new school.” Swallowing nervously Carlos looked up, giving the class a small, shy, smile. He glanced at Kevin’s brother who was staring at him, mouth slightly open in shock. Quickly he looked away, back to his shoes.

“Now, there is an open seat in the front by the windows.” She gently nudged him towards it.

“Where are you from?” A girl asked.

“Now now, if we have time after we are done with our work, and _if_ Carlos would like to answer, then we can do questions, but right now is learning time. Please open your books to page 103.” Carlos quickly did as told before opening his math journal to a new page. Class went by pretty well except halfway through the teacher paused,

“Cecil, I know you find this class lackluster, but please at least pretend to pay attention.” Carlos glanced back to see Kevin’s brother blush brightly and duck his head down. Why did that name sound familiar? He thought about it for a moment before it clicked. That nice girl, Dana. She said she worked with someone named Cecil, and his brother. How many guys in this school were likely to be named Cecil, and the chances of them also having a brother made it slimmer. Filing that thought away for later Carlos turned back to his work. He could think about that more later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha, setting up the story like this is soon boring! But After I establish this I'm hoping to be able to pick up the story!
> 
> We all know that Cecil was staring at Carlos instead of paying attention in class~


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of his classes were interesting enough. One of his science classes he was partnered with a guy named Steve who seemed pretty nice. Gym was an interesting experience, especially with Kevin being in his same class. Carlos couldn’t help but think of the other teen as being very much like a baby duck. It almost seemed like the other had imprinted on him with how he acted. Carlos also decided to keep a book of observations to keep track of how other students interact with the eccentric teen. It seemed like they _were_ afraid of Kevin. Right now Carlos was quickly scribbling down what he had seen through the day in a journal as he sat in study hall. It was the final period of the day and he had finished most all of his homework during lunch. Something hit the back of his head. Glancing at the ground Carlos noticed a wadded up piece of paper. Unsure of what to do he just ignored it, assuming that the possible note was meant for someone else. That is until another hit him. This time he took it after glancing behind him.

_Hey Nerd_  
_Saw you hanging out with that Freak Kevin. If you know what’s good for you you’ll stay away from him. He’s unstable and everyone’s pretty sure he’s the reason his sister’s first boyfriend went missing. Stay away from all the Palmers. Stay away from Carlsberg too. They aren’t safe._

Frowning at the message Carlos shoved it in his backpack. He wasn’t going to listen to the warning. Steve was friendly and excited to discuss some of the more… abstract things in science that most others that Carlos knew would just scoff at. Cecil had not done anything except for awkwardly stutter as he tried to speak to Carlos after class, which had been cut short when they both had to rush to their next class. Kevin… Kevin was a little odd, but how could Carlos blame him for that? No one seemed to want to be his friend, and Carlos knew perfectly well what that was like. Carlos was not going to stop being friends with Kevin unless the other actually did something to warrant it. Until then Kevin was just his odd friend with the strange quirks. When school finally ended Carlos tried to make his way to the front of the building. Tried was the key word. If he didn’t know better he would have thought that the building was changing itself around. Where he thought the math hall was turned out to be the art hallway and when he turned to go down a flight of stairs he ended up in a creepy basement like area. It was dark and unfinished with flickering lights.

“Good Afternoon Night Vale High! This is Kevin speaking, now I know what you all must be thinking. Where is your charming brother Cecil who usually does the announcements in the evening? Now that is a magnificent question listeners. You see Cecil is currently in what we like to call here at the Radio Station, re-education! Re-education is where they take students who know to much or don’t keep their nose out of things they should not be questioning! We will ask Cecil more about this later!” Carlos crept closer to the door that the voice was coming from. Shadows moved in front of the little sliver of light. The door opened. Dana was standing there with a bat in hand but she soon relaxed her stance.

“Hey Carlos, come in. Sorry. I thought you were Laureen.” She spoke the name with complete distaste. Dana moved back to allow him inside the room. It was actually pretty big in there. Kevin was in a booth that looked very red. Dana set her bat by a desk and knocked on the window. Kevin looked up, eyes looking black in the current light.

“Oh! And isn’t this a treat! Our newest student, and my new friend, Carlos the scientist has stopped by! Now it really is too bad that my brother couldn’t be here. He had just been dying to interview the other since he learned we were having a new student. Because I just know it would break my brother’s heart I won’t interview him just yet. If Cecil doesn’t do it by end of tomorrow then it’s fair game.” Kevin winked at Carlos with a large smile. Dana snorted in amusement, but about what Carlos wasn’t sure. Kevin continued on before announcing that he was going to the weather a bit earlier today. He started playing a song to Carlos’ confusion.

“Hey Carlos!” Kevin greeted.

“You’re going to get in trouble if Lauren finds out you did that.”

“Lauren can go to the dog park.” Kevin replied cheerfully before pausing to look at Carlos, “You shouldn’t go into the dog park, and avoid the people in there.”

“Why?” Carlos asked slowly.

“Don’t ask questions that you shouldn’t know the answer to!” Kevin said happily before a dark look entered his eyes and his voice changed slightly, “You don’t want to be re-educated or brought into detention.” Just like that it was over. Carlos glanced to Dana who shook her head.

“Alright. I'll be sure to avoid that.”

“Great! Now how has your day been?”

“Uh, are you sure I mean-” Carlos gestured awkwardly to the station.

“We have four minutes. So did you meet my brother?” Carlos nodded.

“Yeah, but he seemed kind of shy? He kept tripping over his words when he was talking to me.” Kevin snickered while Dana just looked like she saw the funniest thing in the world.

“What?” He was waved off.

“Anyone else interesting?” Dana asked. Carlos thought it over.

“Yeah, a guy in my art class. Steve. He’s pretty nice.”

“He wouldn’t happen to be wearing glasses and a graphic tee? Talks about conspiracy theories?” Carlos nodded. This time Kevin burst out laughing, tears coming to his eyes.

“That is beautiful! Oh! Oh! This is just too great!”

“Okay, so, Cecil hates Steve, Kevin doesn’t hate him but thinks him more like a silly child with his ideas. Steve is also dating their older sister.” Dana explained.

“Why is that funny?”

“You’re smart, you’ll figure it out.”

“So Carlos, I’m surprised you’re still here to be honest.” Kevin’s statement had Carlos remembering why he was there.

“Oh! Right. I got lost trying to leave the school.” Kevin nodded.

“Yeah, the school likes to do that. I could show you the way out!”

“No, I can show him the way out. The weather is ending.” Dana pointed out. Kevin gave a melodramatic sigh but nodded.

“Bye Carlos the scientist!” He called as he went back into the booth. Dana tugged Carlos along.

“Sorry, I know he can be a bit much.” Carlos shrugged as he looked around.

“He’s not bad.” Dana nodded. She was quiet for a few more moments as they went up a flight of stairs that seemed like they were going up four flights rather than one.

“They’re planning a welcome party for you, Cecil and Kevin. It would be this Saturday at the gym.”

“Really? That’s… that’s really nice of them.”

“So it’s safe to give them the green light for this? Because if you don’t want to I can still stop them.” Carlos bit his lip nervously as he glanced down.

“I would come if they did it, but only if they actually want to.”

“Trust me, they do. Ah-ha! Here we are.” Dana opened the door to let Carlos out, “See you tomorrow!”

“Bye Dana!” Carlos called as he headed towards his sister’s car. She sat there looking annoyed as he got in.

“What took you so long?”

“I got lost.” He admitted, “But one of the students was nice enough to help me find my way out.” His sister nodded as she started to drive. It was mostly quiet on the way, which Carlos was fine with. His mother would ask him all about his day once he entered the house. It would be nice not repeating himself so much.

“Carlos, how was your day?” came the question as soon as he entered the house.

“It was… good.”

“Good? Or _good_?” His younger brother asked.

“It was _good_. I made a few friends.” There was a crashing noise as his younger sister stuck her head out from the other room.

“ _What_?” Carlos frowned at her but before he could say anything his mother was speaking.

“Oh! That’s wonderful, what are their names? What are they like?” Carlos slowly thought it over as he headed into the kitchen to help with dinner.

“Well there’s Kevin. He’s really friendly and helpful. He has some weird quirks, like he’s always smiling. Always. In gym he tripped down the stairs and he just got up, smile in place and laughed even though his nose was bleeding. There’s also Dana. She’s really nice too. She helped me find the office and the way out when I got lost after school. Then there’s Steve. He’s a pretty nice guy, but not many people talk to him because of his conspiracy theories. I’m not sure about Cecil. He’s Kevin’s twin. I think he’s nice, but he was really shy so I don't’ really know. I guess Kevin and Cecil are planning a welcome to town party for me for this weekend.”

“No one is going to believe this!” squealed his little sister, “I have to tell my friends!”

“Maria!” their mother scolded, “You’re brother is not entertainment for you and your friends.”

“Of course not mama. We tell everyone what Carlos gets into. Hearing what goes on with him is better than anything on tv.”

“If you think that’s so interesting. I got a note today telling me to stay away from Kevin, Cecil and Steve. I guess I need to stay away from Steve because he’s dating Kevin and Cecil’s older sister.”

“Are you?” Maria asked. Carlos rolled his eyes.

“Of course not. They have been nothing but welcoming. Now get Catalina and Enzo, you three need to do your homework.” Maria sighed but did as told. The rest of the night went smoothly, and as Carlos laid in bed he couldn’t stop his smile. Maybe he didn’t need to worry as much as he had been. So far things were looking up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter! I hope you all enjoy it! Now originally I _was_ going to keep it pretty normal for a high school, but then I decided where's the fun in that?
> 
> So you all know I decided that Carlos has at least one older brother who is away/married already, an older sister, two younger sisters and a younger brother.
> 
> Hope you all have a swell day, or night, or existence, whatever may best apply! :)


	4. Chapter 4

The rest of the week passed pretty normally at least from what Carlos noticed. It was embarrassing to say, but even though he wanted to be a scientist and was very detail orientated that typically only applied to his experiments. When it came to what was going on around him not so much. Maybe that was why he didn’t understand why sometimes Kevin would look at him and laugh, or why Dana looked at him with fond exasperation. Then there was Cecil. He still seemed a bit nervous around him, but he was pretty nice. Cecil kept trying to invite him out. Carlos felt bad that he had to keep turning down the offer, or completely missing it as an offer until later on and feeling like a jerk about it. Cecil was turning out to be a really nice friend and he would really hate if he messed it up. Fortunately, Carlos had been able to avoid being interviewed by either brother. Truthfully he was pretty sure he was going to end up tied to a chair in the recording booth soon if he didn’t willing do one soon. The notes continued as well, but the message was basically the same so he stopped paying them any mind. It was now Saturday. Nathalia had already left for the day to hang out with some friends she had made. Enzo and Catalina were with Maria in the backyard as their father tried to finish setting up some of the outdoor furniture. Dana had told Carlos to be ready around four so he was simply working on some experiments until then. Carefully and with no chemicals of course.

“Carlitos?” Carlos looked up at his mother, pulling his goggles down.

“Yeah mama?”

“There’s two young men at the door asking for you.” Confusion filled Carlos. Who would be there? He dropped his goggles off on his dresser, leaving the lab coat on for now. He saw Maria at the front door first with the twins peeking around her.

“So your name is Carlos now huh?” He asked his siblings. Maria made a face at him.

“Ew, no way. Why would I want a name like _Carlos_?” She teased.

“Yeah, it’s such a gross name.” Enzo said with a large grin.

“It’s not a gross name it’s a _nerd_ name.” Catalina laughed. A familiar laughter entered the house from the front door.

“Move out of the way you little monsters.” Carlos nudged them out of the way.

“Why if it isn’t our favorite scientist!” Kevin greeted happily, smile growing in that eerie way it was prone to.

“Hi Kevin.” Carlos spotted Cecil standing just to the side of his brother, “Hi Cecil.”

“Hey-hi. Hi Carlos.” Cecil tripped over his words, eyes glancing off to the side and face turning a slightly purplish red. The first time Carlos had actually seen the blush he had been worried, but Kevin had been there an assured him that it was normal for his brother.

“What were you up to? Your siblings were telling us about an experiment? They said something about chemicals and an accident?” 

“You’re okay, right?” Cecil looked genuinely worried, eyes looking him over as if to see if there was any injuries at that moment. Carlos felt his own face heat up. He rubbed the back of his head in a nervous habit.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Uh, they were talking about something I did a while ago.”

“It’s the reason we moved here.” Enzo informed with an impish grin on his face.

“He decided to mix chemicals because ‘science’.” Maria informed with a _look_ to her brother.

“Our house wasn’t safe to live in anymore.” Catalina added.

“Well you better be careful from now on. I would hate if I lost another friend to a chemical accident.” Kevin informed with a wink.

“You’ve lost another friend?” Maria asked hesitantly, glancing to Carlos in question. Kevin nodded. Carlos noticed Cecil roll his eyes at his brother, but he didn’t correct him.

“So what was our resident scientist working on?”

“Do you have to refer to me as that every time?” Carlos sighed as his siblings snickered.

“Of course! Everyone has a title! Dana is the Intern, Cecil is the Voice, _Lauren_ is the-”

“Kevin!” Cecil interrupted. Kevin and Cecil seemed to have a silent conversation before the attention went back to Carlos.

“So?”

“It’s just with time. I’ve noticed that most of the clocks refuse to sync up. I’ve tried with several of our clocks alone and I even picked a few up from the store. They are always fifteen minutes apart if they’re digital and the blue analog clock keeps jumping between 3:15 and 6:66 which I’m not even sure how that happens since analog clocks don’t even have the function to show 6:66. I’ve run several different experiments but I haven’t been able to figure it out and that was before the green one started walking away!” Carlos didn’t realize he had started to ramble, messing his hair up in frustration until his sister placed a hand on his arm.

“Carlitos, have you been staying up late again?” Catalina asked with a frown. Right. He sounded crazy. That was a great impression to make.

“Did you buy your clocks from Walmart?” Kevin asked casually.

“Huh?”

“Walmart? The clocks?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah I did.” Kevin nodded,

“Yeah. They do that a lot.”

“They… do?”

“Yeah. No one knows why but Steve thinks it’s a government experiment.” Kevin shot a smirk at Cecil at this though Cecil was looking at the ground, hands tense.

“It would be interesting to know why the clocks work the way they do, right Cecil?” Kevin nudged the other boy. Cecil nodded in agreement, mumbling something under his breath.

“I could show you the experiments I’m running.” Carlos offered.

“Neat!” Cecil’s voice cracked as he responded. Carlos was distracted when there was a strangled noise from beside him. Maria was covering her mouth but her eyes crinkled at the sides to show she was smiling. Whatever it was had her practically glowing.

“What?” Maria just shook her head. Catalina and Enzo had smiles that said they knew something that Carlos didn’t. This wasn’t an uncommon look. It was what they did to tell him he was missing some social cue that was obvious to anyone who had a greater social interaction skill than that of a serval. Though now that he knew he missed something it was going to bug him. Sighing he turned back to his friends. Cecil was staring very determinedly at the ground. Kevin was snickering but he stopped when Carlos looked back at them.

“Well, come on. We have to get going.” Kevin grabbed his arm.

“Uh, hang on- my lab coat-”

“What’s a scientist without a lab coat anyway? You look fine! Trust me a lab coat isn’t the oddest thing someone could wear I mean one day Cecil-”

“Kevin shut up!” Cecil squeaked, voice pitching higher. Kevin laughed again as he started to pull Carlos along. Carlos turned to Maria.

“I’ll be back later, okay?”

“Yeah. I’m going to call Varya.” Maria managed before bolting. Carlos sighed. Of course she was going to gossip about this. Carlos just sighed, letting Kevin chat happily as he dragged him through the unfamiliar town. Every once in awhile Kevin would drag Cecil into the conversation who was a little more confident away from Carlos’ siblings, which wasn’t surprising with how they could be. It wasn’t long before they were at the high school and entering the gym. There were a lot of people actually there, surprisingly. A large banner read ‘Welcome to Night Vale’ with another one under it reading ‘Carlos the Scientist.’

“Everyone is going to think that’s my actual last name.”

“They already do.” Kevin informed happily. It was probably his fault that they did.

“Well now that our guest of honor is here let’s get this party started!” Dana called happily as she hit the music.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I got really unhappy at the legal brief I have to do for class and since it fried my brain I wrote this! Hahaha! Everyone knows by now except Carlos and Kevin thinks it's the funniest thing in the world. I can't get over Cecil's voice though! Just think about it. Cecil still hasn't fully gone through puberty yet so his voice still sounding like it did in Cassettes! He's such a precious little thing! With the whole chemical thing I was going to have Cecil say 'Kevin, it's your fault it happened' but I felt like that might have actually scared Carlos off or make his siblings fear for his safety. That doesn't happen till later! Well not the scaring Carlos off ;)
> 
>  
> 
> **I think maybe I'll either have some chapters that are from Maria's P.O.V while she's telling everyone about what's going on in Carlos' drama of a life or maybe I'll do it as a sub story. Any preferences?**
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who has read this and a special thanks to those who comment! It's super getting comments.
> 
>  
> 
> One last thing: I unfortunately cannot say when I will be able to update this. It might be in a few weeks to about a month or so. I'm wrapping up my classes so I have several large assignments to do, I need to find a job and my family and I are moving. Lots to do but when I get some down time I pinky swear I'll work on it more!

**Author's Note:**

> So, short first chapter. I'll try to get it longer for the next one.
> 
> Comments are appreciated! Whether constructive criticism, questions, theories about where it's going or just a :)
> 
> I couldn't figure out a title so I used morse code, haha sorry. It just says Welcome. Any better title suggestions are welcomed with enthusiasm!


End file.
